Óbidos is one of the most beautiful and best-preserved medieval towns in Portugal: a maze of cobbled lanes, white houses trimmed in yellow and blue, bougainvillea and geraniums, entirely enclosed by crenellated walls. It lies about 80 kilometres north of Lisbon, on a hill that once overlooked a lagoon open to the sea.
The town of queens
In 1282 King Dinis gave Óbidos to his wife, Queen Isabel of Aragon, who had fallen in love with it during a visit. From then on, for centuries, the town formed part of the dowry of Portugal's queens, which is why it is called the "Casa das Rainhas". In the sixteenth century Queen Catherine of Austria built the aqueduct that still brings water to the town.
What to see
You enter through the Porta da Vila, decorated with eighteenth-century azulejos, and walk along Rua Direita, the main street, full of shops. You can walk long stretches of the walls, without railings, with magnificent views over the roofs and countryside. The castle, at the top of the town, is now a pousada. The church of Santa Maria, on the main square, has an azulejo-lined interior and paintings by Josefa de Óbidos, one of the few successful women painters of seventeenth-century Europe, who lived here. Just outside the walls, the hexagonal Baroque sanctuary of Senhor da Pedra is a place of pilgrimage.
Books and ginjinha
Since 2015 Óbidos has been a UNESCO Creative City of Literature: it has bookshops in unusual places, such as a deconsecrated Gothic church turned into the Livraria de Santiago, and holds the FOLIO literary festival every year. The town is also famous for ginjinha, sour cherry liqueur, drunk from little chocolate cups. In spring there is the International Chocolate Festival, in summer the Mercado Medieval, and in December a Christmas village.
Surroundings
A few kilometres away is the Óbidos Lagoon, the largest coastal lagoon in Portugal, with the beach of Foz do Arelho, where the lagoon meets the sea. Óbidos is about an hour from Lisbon by car (A8) or by direct bus. Caldas da Rainha, Peniche and Nazaré are nearby.